[APWG] Why not succeed the first time, with Performance Standards?

[Krohn, Alison]

How does this group define a weed?  Are naturalized plants like lambs quarters viewed the same as native ragweed?  I'm very confused by the insistence on 100% native purity. I don't think it's possible in the Midwest. I work for a state transportation agency and we seed 98% native species, not local ecotype.  But when our seeding adjoins a brome pasture, brome will invade and we cannot spend public resources to prevent that.  Is this discussion confined to the great basin and California?

Is everyone aware of the clean water act and the requirements of the NPDES construction permit?  Anywhere more than 1 acre is disturbed (unless you're a farmer) a construction stormwater permit is required and remains open until 70% of the pre-construction/native, perennial vegetation is restored.  Most of the roadsides we are regrading and seeding were brome.  Native prairie vegetation, especially mixed grass areas will provide less vegetative cover than the brome and therefore will potentially discharge more sediment into our waterways (if you believe the RUSLE2 model).  I'm not advocating brome, just want to point out the mixed messages out there and conflicting expectations.  We must stabilize erodible soils within 14 days under the clean water act to protect our waterways.  This state uses a mix of cool and warm season grasses to meet this requirement along with some forbs. It is not a restoration mix. 

I also grow local ecotype seed and obviously support its  use but there is not enough of this seed in our area to restore roadsides and there doesn't appear to be the public support for this endeavor in terms of dollars from FHWA, the state government or wealthy donors. I applaud all of the research that Craig and others are doing but am frustrated by the assumption that roadsides are restorations.  We just don't have the resources to pull it off.

-----Original Message-----
From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org [mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:07 AM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: [APWG] Why not succeed the first time, with Performance Standards?

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.

Did everyone enjoy the Europe to Africa vegetation Megatransect  at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/europe_africa_megatransect.html ?
I extended the web page yesterday, to cover from the northern tip of
Norway (70N) to the southern tip of Africa (34S).  How about those rocks
in Mali at 18N?

What I am suggesting, is that we start looking for weed management or
Ecological Restoration methods, with Performance Standards, for our
projects, espcially the government-funded ones, like habitat restoration,
or highway roadsides, etc.

Up to now, when someone purchased local native seeds, or purchased native
plants from a nursery, there was a hope that the seed company or the
nursery would be able to tell you, how to plant those seeds or plants, so
they would succeed and thrive in a wildlands situation.

Being the owner of a seed company and nursery myself, it is all that a
seed company or nursery can do for the price, to deliver good germinating,
weed-free native seeds, or nurseries to deliver healthy native plants---to
expect them to give you any advice on how to plant them in a wildlands
situation, is way, way beyond the scope of their work.

Successful technologies on planting those natives back into wildlands, and
getting them to survive, is a separate, very expensive puzzle to solve,
and is going to require a separate, very significant investment.

That is why I set forth a set of costs per 1/10th acre, on how much it may
cost to invent the technologies necessary, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html

A similar situation happened in the computer industry before 1967. 
Computers were built and sold, and the software and operating systems were
free.  But when the programs and operating systems were free,  there was
no economic incentive to write better ones, so they were very slow and
clunky--it might take 12 hours to process one job, for example.

Then, in 1967, Kenneth Kolence started the first business to write and
license software, and his first product was one that is still used today,
the disk defragmentation program, which rearranged the programs on the
disk so all the parts of each program were right next to each other,
greatly speeding up the computer operations.

It seems much more efficient, to start out buying or licensing a
pre-tested weed management or ecological restoration program, that has
some solid Performance Standards supporting it?

Otherwise, the scary, horror-show of the I-505 planting in the Sacramento
valley, we see it is possible to invest $450,000 on a couple of acres, 
and by using the unlicensed, public domain, off-the-shelf free restoration
technologies, still not get it right after six years and five planting
attempts?  Why not succeed the first time?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333



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